[Top News] from [REUTERS]
[Green Business]
Michael Perry
SYDNEY
Mon Jan 4, 2010 10:59pm EST
Australia baked under hottest decade on record
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia experienced its hottest decade on record from 2000 to 2009 due to global warming, the nation's bureau of meteorology said on Tuesday, as annual summer bushfires again burn drought lands and destroy homes.
The average temperature in Australia over the past 10 years was 0.48 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 average, said the Bureau of Meteorology said in its annual climate statement.
And 2010 is forecast to be even hotter, with temperatures likely to be between 0.5 and 1 degrees above average.
"We're getting these increasingly warm temperatures, not just for Australia but globally. Climate change, global warming is clearly continuing," said bureau climatologist David Jones.
"We're in the latter stages of an El Nino event in the Pacific Ocean and what that means for Australian and global temperatures is that 2010 is likely to be another very warm year -- perhaps even the warmest on record."
Environment Minister Peter Garrett used the report to attack opposition politicians for blocking the government's key climate policy, a carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) aimed at reducing greenhouses gases causing global warming.
"Australia is one of the hottest and driest inhabited places on earth and our environment and economy will be one of the hardest and fastest hit by climate change," said Garrett.
"Today's statement finds that the patterns of the last year and the decade are consistent with global warming. It (passing the ETS) is in the national interest and it is in the interest of the world," he said in a statement.
The government has promised to reintroduce its ETS legislation to parliament in February, a move which may trigger an early election in 2010 if the legislation is again defeated.
An election is due in late 2010.
EXTREME BUSHFIRES, HEATWAVES
The year 2009 will be remembered for "extreme bushfires, dust-storms, lingering rainfall deficiencies, areas of flooding and record-breaking heatwaves", said the bureau.
In fact, 2009 was Australia's second warmest year on record, with the annual mean temperature 0.90 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 average, driven by three record-breaking heatwaves that caused Australia's most deadly bushfires, killing 173 people.
"To get one of them in a year would have been unusual. To get three is just really quite remarkable," said Jones.
Outback Australia was warming more quickly than other parts of the country, with some inland areas warming at twice the rate of coastal regions, said the bureau.
But as Australia warmed, with large tracts of the country battling a decade-long drought, the northern part of the country was becoming wetter, said the bureau.
Floods now cover large parts of northern New South Wales state and the tropical state of Queensland.
"Australia as a whole has been getting warmer for about 50-60 years and it's actually been tending to get wetter," said Jones. "You see this paradox -- the country, particularly in the north, it's getting wetter but is also warming up." (Source: Bureau of Meterology here)
To read in-depth articles on Australasian carbon risks and opportunities, visit Carbon Central - Australia's Climate Change Hub (here), which brings together several of Australia's leading climate-change advisers and solution-providers in one place.
(Editing by Alex Richardson)
[Green Business]
Patrick Rucker
VALLE DE BRAVO, Mexico
Mon Jan 4, 2010 9:44pm EST
Mexico City battles water crisis with taxes, pleas
VALLE DE BRAVO, Mexico (Reuters) - Lake Avandaro has long been the emblem of leisure in this wealthy, colonial town west of Mexico City, but the capital sucked it half-dry last spring.
Ever thirstier, Mexico City diverted tonnes of water from the lake to the capital, putting the quaint village of Valle de Bravo in jeopardy as a popular weekend vacation spot for the rich.
Water skiers and boaters had to dodge emerging rocks as the lake level dropped to half its normal volume.
"I was born here and I have never seen it at that level," said Carlos Gonzalez, 33, manager of the floating Los Pericos restaurant that was in danger of resting on the lakebed just a few months ago.
Mexico City, one of the world's biggest cities at 20 million people, has long struggled with a lack of water but the crisis worsened last year due to drought that has left reservoirs at record lows.
Water authorities increasingly turned to Lake Avandaro, nestled in a picturesque wooded area, to satisfy demand. Outrage from wealthy residents halted the worst of the draining and a deal was eventually reached to keep the lake level at 75 percent.
Mexico City lawmakers in December agreed to increase water tariffs for all users in 2010 and cut generous subsidies, but that hard-fought change may not be enough.
Sudden cuts in the water supply are frequent and many residents know their water by the color it leaves the spout.
"It comes out like tamarind juice and then yellow, yellow, yellow," said Maricela Martinez who shares a small house with her extended family in the poor Iztapalapa neighborhood.
"At times it comes out worse - putrid like dead flowers thrown away," she said.
The Martinez family have long made allowances for poor service by having drinking water delivered in 20-liter (5.28 gallon) jugs while the liquid that comes from the pipes is only fit for houseplants, they said.
Mexico City's wealthiest residents will pay more than three times as much for their water service as the city's poorest under the new tax structure. Annual water costs for a wealthy family still should not top 515 pesos ($40) a year, local media reports.
The new tax structure will eliminate "ridiculously low" levies and represents a first step to creating a self-sustaining system, said Ramon Aguirre, director of Mexico City's water department.
"The clear path to resolving this problem is in higher tariffs," Aguirre said.
Yet despite the higher levies, water is still relatively cheap compared to other capital cities around the world. Wealthier Mexico City residents use as much as 300 liters of water per day, half again the rate set by residents in European capitals, said Gustavo Saltiel, a World Bank development expert based in Mexico.
WASTED WATER
Leaks and theft mean nearly 40 percent of Mexico City water is lost before it reaches the tap and only half of what is left is metered. Officials are in a desperate battle to serve the 20 million residents and the business community at a time of declining rainfall.
"Business as usual is not sustainable," said Saltiel, who is advising the Mexican government on its water crisis. "Can you bring water from far away? Yes, but how much? And how much of this scarce resource is available?"
A huge lake system that once covered Mexico City's vast urban plain and nurtured a vibrant Aztec civilization has long vanished due to explosive population growth and inordinate water use.
The nearest aquifers are depleted, prompting buildings downtown to sink slowly. Meanwhile, engineers are trying to tap distant waterways.
Officials limited water service to many Mexico City neighborhoods last spring in the face of a dry spell not seen in nearly 70 years. New tariffs and a public awareness campaign should help curtail demand so that such drastic steps are not needed this year, said Aguirre.
Ironically, the capital often suffers from a deluge of water. In the summer rainy season, downpours hit the city almost nightly for several months. But much of the rain is not captured and inadequate drainage means that the city often chokes.
A busted sewer pipe in the outskirts of the city created a river of flood water that smashed cars, closed subway stations and killed an elderly couple in September. A later downpour blocked access to the city's main refuse dump, backing up garbage for days.
(Reporting by Patrick Rucker; research by David Cutler, editing by Philip Barbara)
[Green Business]
NEW YORK
Mon Jan 4, 2010 1:06pm EST
U.S. December weather coldest since 2000: Planalytics
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States experienced its coldest winter in nine years in December as snow storms swept across the country, private weather forecaster Planalytics said on Monday.
Every region in the United States trended colder than normal, Planalytics said, which helped boost energy prices as consumers nationwide turned up their heating.
"Following the warmest November since 2001, the month of December 2009 ended the coldest since 2000," Planalytics said on Monday.
The highly populated northeast saw its coldest December since 2005, as did the southeast, Planalytics said. According to the National Weather Service, heating degree days in December for the whole United States were 867, 50 above the norm and 43 more than last year.
Degree days, a measure of departure in the mean daily temperature from 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius), are used to reflect demand for energy to heat or cool homes and businesses.
Heating oil prices rose nearly 10 percent in December, to $2.14 per gallon and natural gas prices rose 15 percent to above $5.50 per mmBtu, as consumers turned up the heat in their homes.
[Green Business]
Michael Perry
SYDNEY
Mon Jan 4, 2010 10:59pm EST
Australia baked under hottest decade on record
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia experienced its hottest decade on record from 2000 to 2009 due to global warming, the nation's bureau of meteorology said on Tuesday, as annual summer bushfires again burn drought lands and destroy homes.
The average temperature in Australia over the past 10 years was 0.48 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 average, said the Bureau of Meteorology said in its annual climate statement.
And 2010 is forecast to be even hotter, with temperatures likely to be between 0.5 and 1 degrees above average.
"We're getting these increasingly warm temperatures, not just for Australia but globally. Climate change, global warming is clearly continuing," said bureau climatologist David Jones.
"We're in the latter stages of an El Nino event in the Pacific Ocean and what that means for Australian and global temperatures is that 2010 is likely to be another very warm year -- perhaps even the warmest on record."
Environment Minister Peter Garrett used the report to attack opposition politicians for blocking the government's key climate policy, a carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) aimed at reducing greenhouses gases causing global warming.
"Australia is one of the hottest and driest inhabited places on earth and our environment and economy will be one of the hardest and fastest hit by climate change," said Garrett.
"Today's statement finds that the patterns of the last year and the decade are consistent with global warming. It (passing the ETS) is in the national interest and it is in the interest of the world," he said in a statement.
The government has promised to reintroduce its ETS legislation to parliament in February, a move which may trigger an early election in 2010 if the legislation is again defeated.
An election is due in late 2010.
EXTREME BUSHFIRES, HEATWAVES
The year 2009 will be remembered for "extreme bushfires, dust-storms, lingering rainfall deficiencies, areas of flooding and record-breaking heatwaves", said the bureau.
In fact, 2009 was Australia's second warmest year on record, with the annual mean temperature 0.90 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 average, driven by three record-breaking heatwaves that caused Australia's most deadly bushfires, killing 173 people.
"To get one of them in a year would have been unusual. To get three is just really quite remarkable," said Jones.
Outback Australia was warming more quickly than other parts of the country, with some inland areas warming at twice the rate of coastal regions, said the bureau.
But as Australia warmed, with large tracts of the country battling a decade-long drought, the northern part of the country was becoming wetter, said the bureau.
Floods now cover large parts of northern New South Wales state and the tropical state of Queensland.
"Australia as a whole has been getting warmer for about 50-60 years and it's actually been tending to get wetter," said Jones. "You see this paradox -- the country, particularly in the north, it's getting wetter but is also warming up." (Source: Bureau of Meterology here)
To read in-depth articles on Australasian carbon risks and opportunities, visit Carbon Central - Australia's Climate Change Hub (here), which brings together several of Australia's leading climate-change advisers and solution-providers in one place.
(Editing by Alex Richardson)
[Green Business]
Patrick Rucker
VALLE DE BRAVO, Mexico
Mon Jan 4, 2010 9:44pm EST
Mexico City battles water crisis with taxes, pleas
VALLE DE BRAVO, Mexico (Reuters) - Lake Avandaro has long been the emblem of leisure in this wealthy, colonial town west of Mexico City, but the capital sucked it half-dry last spring.
Ever thirstier, Mexico City diverted tonnes of water from the lake to the capital, putting the quaint village of Valle de Bravo in jeopardy as a popular weekend vacation spot for the rich.
Water skiers and boaters had to dodge emerging rocks as the lake level dropped to half its normal volume.
"I was born here and I have never seen it at that level," said Carlos Gonzalez, 33, manager of the floating Los Pericos restaurant that was in danger of resting on the lakebed just a few months ago.
Mexico City, one of the world's biggest cities at 20 million people, has long struggled with a lack of water but the crisis worsened last year due to drought that has left reservoirs at record lows.
Water authorities increasingly turned to Lake Avandaro, nestled in a picturesque wooded area, to satisfy demand. Outrage from wealthy residents halted the worst of the draining and a deal was eventually reached to keep the lake level at 75 percent.
Mexico City lawmakers in December agreed to increase water tariffs for all users in 2010 and cut generous subsidies, but that hard-fought change may not be enough.
Sudden cuts in the water supply are frequent and many residents know their water by the color it leaves the spout.
"It comes out like tamarind juice and then yellow, yellow, yellow," said Maricela Martinez who shares a small house with her extended family in the poor Iztapalapa neighborhood.
"At times it comes out worse - putrid like dead flowers thrown away," she said.
The Martinez family have long made allowances for poor service by having drinking water delivered in 20-liter (5.28 gallon) jugs while the liquid that comes from the pipes is only fit for houseplants, they said.
Mexico City's wealthiest residents will pay more than three times as much for their water service as the city's poorest under the new tax structure. Annual water costs for a wealthy family still should not top 515 pesos ($40) a year, local media reports.
The new tax structure will eliminate "ridiculously low" levies and represents a first step to creating a self-sustaining system, said Ramon Aguirre, director of Mexico City's water department.
"The clear path to resolving this problem is in higher tariffs," Aguirre said.
Yet despite the higher levies, water is still relatively cheap compared to other capital cities around the world. Wealthier Mexico City residents use as much as 300 liters of water per day, half again the rate set by residents in European capitals, said Gustavo Saltiel, a World Bank development expert based in Mexico.
WASTED WATER
Leaks and theft mean nearly 40 percent of Mexico City water is lost before it reaches the tap and only half of what is left is metered. Officials are in a desperate battle to serve the 20 million residents and the business community at a time of declining rainfall.
"Business as usual is not sustainable," said Saltiel, who is advising the Mexican government on its water crisis. "Can you bring water from far away? Yes, but how much? And how much of this scarce resource is available?"
A huge lake system that once covered Mexico City's vast urban plain and nurtured a vibrant Aztec civilization has long vanished due to explosive population growth and inordinate water use.
The nearest aquifers are depleted, prompting buildings downtown to sink slowly. Meanwhile, engineers are trying to tap distant waterways.
Officials limited water service to many Mexico City neighborhoods last spring in the face of a dry spell not seen in nearly 70 years. New tariffs and a public awareness campaign should help curtail demand so that such drastic steps are not needed this year, said Aguirre.
Ironically, the capital often suffers from a deluge of water. In the summer rainy season, downpours hit the city almost nightly for several months. But much of the rain is not captured and inadequate drainage means that the city often chokes.
A busted sewer pipe in the outskirts of the city created a river of flood water that smashed cars, closed subway stations and killed an elderly couple in September. A later downpour blocked access to the city's main refuse dump, backing up garbage for days.
(Reporting by Patrick Rucker; research by David Cutler, editing by Philip Barbara)
[Green Business]
NEW YORK
Mon Jan 4, 2010 1:06pm EST
U.S. December weather coldest since 2000: Planalytics
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States experienced its coldest winter in nine years in December as snow storms swept across the country, private weather forecaster Planalytics said on Monday.
Every region in the United States trended colder than normal, Planalytics said, which helped boost energy prices as consumers nationwide turned up their heating.
"Following the warmest November since 2001, the month of December 2009 ended the coldest since 2000," Planalytics said on Monday.
The highly populated northeast saw its coldest December since 2005, as did the southeast, Planalytics said. According to the National Weather Service, heating degree days in December for the whole United States were 867, 50 above the norm and 43 more than last year.
Degree days, a measure of departure in the mean daily temperature from 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius), are used to reflect demand for energy to heat or cool homes and businesses.
Heating oil prices rose nearly 10 percent in December, to $2.14 per gallon and natural gas prices rose 15 percent to above $5.50 per mmBtu, as consumers turned up the heat in their homes.
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